


Cultural Curiosity

by Quillsandcoffee



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alien Lore, Aliens, Bros being hoes, Cuddling, Fluff, M/M, m/m - Freeform, troll purring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:14:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29114355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quillsandcoffee/pseuds/Quillsandcoffee
Summary: Dave has an obsession with Karkat’s hair and Karkat doesn’t mind it one bit, despite his protests.
Relationships: Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas
Comments: 4
Kudos: 77





	Cultural Curiosity

Karkat wasn’t even sure how they’d gotten into this situation. Dave had commented on his messy tangles, eyeing them scrupulously from behind his shades, and the next thing he knew the human had wrestled him onto the couch and was jerking a comb through his hair.

“This is unnecessary,” he huffed, wincing as Dave pulled through a particularly difficult knot. “I can brush my own fucking hair.”

“Shut up. This looks like a rat nest.”

“Fuck you.”

“No, I’m serious man. Any second now an army of tiny rat children are going to come crawling out of your hair to go scavenge for food or some shit.”

“You’re not as funny as you think you are.”

“Shut up, I’m hilarious.”

Karkat sighed, relenting to the unforgiving comb. It was painful at first, and there was a lot of death threats exchanged within the first couple minutes, but after a while the comb started to make progress and the gentle running of the spikes down his scalp became almost calming. At this point the comb was useless, but Dave kept running it through the curls, humming almost unconsciously as he did. 

After a moment, Karkat opened his eyes reluctantly and muttered, “This is really fucking pale, you know.”

“What?” Dave sounded distracted, as though he had forgotten for a moment that the troll was there, an odd thing considering he was fondling his head.

“You know, moirallegiance?”

“Oh, your weird troll bromance.”

“It’s not your human ‘bromance’, Dave. There’s a lot more involved than whatever dumb alien friendship you guys have. For instance, this isn’t something you would do with John, is it?”

“Well, no, but that’s because—”

He broke off whatever he had been about to say, opting instead to abandon the comb and start running just his fingers through his hair. “Never mind. Dude, your hair is so fucking soft. Is that a troll thing?”

“Not… not exactly,” Karkat managed. He was finding it difficult to concentrate as Dave continued, sinking into the relaxing touch. Karkat had never been a very touchy-feely troll, and even when he had a moirails, he and Gamzee never did this kind of stuff. Then again, Karkat and Gamzee’s relationship probably wasn’t the ideal example of good moirails. Even when he and Terezi had their brief fling, or whatever the fuck that mess had been, it had only contained a couple chaste kisses thrown in-between the chaos of their lives. He never realized how nice it felt to have someone just there, gently touching you, holding you. Not to mention, humans were so fucking warm.

Only through great force of will did Karkat prevent himself from sinking back into Dave’s arms and falling asleep. He hadn’t felt safe enough to fall asleep properly in so long, and the fact that Dave was causing his peaceful, relaxed state made him feel… well he wasn’t exactly sure. Strange. He couldn’t tell if it was in a good or bad way.

His internal debate was interrupted as Dave began scratching the sweet spot at the base of his horns, and from that moment on Karkat was gone from this world. He closed his eyes, not even bothering to care what they looked like in this moment as Dave continued running his fingers through his hair, both of them content to just let the moment continue.

They stayed like that for a while, just the two of them curled on the sofa, practically in each other’s arms. If anyone had walked in at that moment, Karkat wasn’t sure what he would do. Deny everything? Freak out and yell at people, his solution to most problems? He couldn’t even imagine moving from the position he was in, if he was being honest.

He tried to remind himself that this was Dave, his friend (by the vaguest of terms), and that humans didn’t have moirallegiance. What did Dave even think they were doing here? Was this a friend thing? What did he even qualify this as? Karkat liked to consider himself an expert on love, but in reality he had no idea what he was doing. And for some reason things were extra confusing with Dave. Every time Karkat looked at him, he was filled with this overwhelming warmth, and when it grew too big for Karkat to deal with he just pushed it aside, smiled and took Dave’s hand, telling himself this was normal. Because he didn’t want to have to think about if it wasn’t normal, didn’t want to face what that warmth meant. He didn’t want anything to have to change.

Unfortunately, he was only allowed to relax for so long before Dave stopped suddenly, frowning down at him. “Dude, are you fucking purring?”

Karkat stiffened, immediately pushing himself out of Dave’s arms. “No. Fuck off. Trolls don’t purr, we’re not fucking meowbeasts.”

“Then what was that sound you were making?”

Karkat tried to think back. Had he been making a sound? If he had been, it wasn’t like he could be blamed for anything he had done with Dave’s magic fingers pawing all over his scalp. He vaguely remembered, in his state of relaxation, allowing contented growls to rumble from his throat. But that was different, and not at all like the weak purring of meowbeasts.

“For your information,” he started, crossing his arms, and Dave rolled his eyes at the promise of what was sure to be a long and angry lecture. “I was growling, not purring. It is a defense mechanism long installed in our species to protect ourselves in states of defenselessness. I was only—”

“You felt defenseless?” Dave leaned forward, subsequently cutting him. An infuriating smirk played at his lips. Karkat regretted saying anything at all, but it was too late to pull his words back now. So instead, he settled on the next best thing, a solution that had never before failed him.

“Fuck you Strider.”

“Maybe later.” The words were spoken casually, no different from any other of Dave’s euphemism filled jabs, but for some reason Karkat felt embarrassing red creeping up his neck. It didn’t make any sense and Karkat was in no mood to dwell on it.

“Whatever,” he huffed, slipping off the couch. “I have important leader business to attend to anyway. I don’t have time to sit around and be insulted all day.”

“I wasn’t insulting you,” Dave protested. “I think the purring—sorry, growling, thing is cute.”

“Cute?” Karkat scoffed, raising an eyebrow.

“I mean cool,” he quickly corrected. “I didn’t mean to piss you off, is what I’m saying. You don’t have to leave if you don’t want to.”

Karkat stared back at him, debating internally. Dave seemed genuinely apologetic about the whole thing, and Karkat did miss the feeling of those fingers in his hair. Not to mention, he had been lying earlier; he had absolutely nothing going on. Being a leader was not exactly a needed skill when you were sitting on a meteor for three years doing nothing.

Dave sat back after a minute or so of this same staring, raising his hands in surrender. “It’s cool, I mean, if you don’t want to, don’t force yourself—”

He was interrupted by Karkat’s body, dumped unceremoniously back into his lap. Karkat’s lip was turned out in what was undeniably a pout and he was glaring intently at the side of the couch, refusing to meet Dave’s eyes. “Fine. But only because you so desperately want me to. I would feel bad about denying you.”

“I don’t—” Dave started, but broke off at the look in Karkat’s eyes, pleading him not to say anything. “Alright, yeah, you got me. Thank you, oh great leader, for submitting to my wishes. How can I ever repay you?”

“Seriously, fuck yourself right in the ass.”

“Not unless you watch me.”

Dave laughed as Karkat shoved him roughly, and the evening slowly descended into playful madness.

Karkat couldn’t say he was unhappy about it.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me at my tumblr: https://crookswithbooks.tumblr.com/


End file.
